What did you buy today? Post your latest purchase!

[Peter_O]

I preferred this solution.... https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61DueEfZwnL._AC_SL1362_.jpg

McBryce.

I tried, he have a Stanley one... It's on the corner catching dust...

I can remember from my kids time that it was always very frustrating when you grow into finding something interesting new, and then you get a non-functioning kids version of it.

[McBryce]

I preferred this solution.... https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61DueEfZwnL._AC_SL1362_.jpg

McBryce.

I tried, he have a Stanley one... It's on the corner catching dust...

I can remember from my kids time that it was always very frustrating when you grow into finding something interesting new, and then you get a non-functioning kids version of it.

Yeah, that happened to me when I discovered automatic weapons.

McBryce.

[deadlylover]

I needed a small ruler....for art. Really hard to find a decent 15cm plastic ruler all the nice drafting ones seem to be 30cm. I have some dollar cheapies and they don't even lie flat.

I'll try a Mitutoyo, couldn't find a Starrett here in Australia. Ended up being USD10 with an Ebay coupon so eh why not?

If the edges are too sharp I'll knock em down with a whetstone, is that sacrilegious? 

[RAPo]

I have a foldable Midori, which works perfectly

[themadhippy]

Just over a week from ordering the posty arrived with

Nearly 400 quid to find out my  power supply is a bit noisy and my signal gen isn't very square  at 200khz

No wonder they included there catalogue  in the box.

First impressions are good,my main concern was the lack of real knobs for everything,but  from  random button stabs and knob twiddling it seems  fairly intuitive to use. One big plus is no longer having to count squares to fathom out what's being measured,and 4 traces instead of 2 1 is a big improvement.

[beanflying]

I needed a small ruler....for art. Really hard to find a decent 15cm plastic ruler all the nice drafting ones seem to be 30cm. I have some dollar cheapies and they don't even lie flat.

I'll try a Mitutoyo, couldn't find a Starrett here in Australia. Ended up being USD10 with an Ebay coupon so eh why not?

If the edges are too sharp I'll knock em down with a whetstone, is that sacrilegious? 

(Attachment Link)

What you have there is also known as a 'Engineers Scale' rather than a Ruler, Total Tools carries the Toledo range. Generally much thicker than the more common 150mm Ruler off evilbay and are square ended.

Some nice toys here I got a while ago for timber layout but also work well for sketching on dead trees prior to CAD https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what-did-you-buy-today-post-your-latest-purchase!/msg3592669/#msg3592669

[Black Phoenix]

For engineer rulers Kokuyo and Shinwa make good ones, with round corners on one side an a loop hole.

Also both are JIS approved, who is the standards authority in Japan.

[gamalot]

Building a desktop PC for my son. 

[McBryce]

Just over a week from ordering the posty arrived with

Nearly 400 quid to find out my  power supply is a bit noisy and my signal gen isn't very square  at 200khz

No wonder they included there catalogue  in the box.

First impressions are good,my main concern was the lack of real knobs for everything,but  from  random button stabs and knob twiddling it seems  fairly intuitive to use. One big plus is no longer having to count squares to fathom out what's being measured,and 4 traces instead of 2 1 is a big improvement.

The square wave looks more like you haven't calibrated the scope probe properly. It's relatively square, but the rise time is a bit slow.

McBryce.

Edit: just realised that channel 1 is on 1x which probably means that you connected the two via a straight BNC cable, possibly without any termination, so the wave is pretty much what one would expect. Try measuring the SigGen via a 10x probe with a 50R termination.

[rdl]

Box arrived from Amazon yesterday with:

iGaging EZ Cal Digital Micrometer 100-333-8B
6" inch-metric-fractional inch, IP54 rated

ThermoPro TP200B Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer Kit

Also a pair of house slippers, a bottle of Windex, and Nature's Bounty Fish Oil gel caps. But who cares about those.

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi, I wish to share a non-purchase!!

I ordered somethings from AliExpress, after 10 days I got a message saying that an automatic refund will be issued in the next 3-20 days.

The vendor says that the item is out of stock, but still has it listed (999 available). There seems to be no place to leave feedback since the product wasn't shipped.

I should get a full refund, but I have wasted 10 days waiting for the vendor.

The vendor has 100% feedback, been on AliExpress for 5 years and 286 followers.

Is this common practice on AliExpress?

Other vendors I have dealt with have shipped within 24-48 hours.

Regards,
Jay_Diddy_B

[deadlylover]

Is this common practice on AliExpress?

Ehhhh it's not uncommon.

It depends if you're buying from like a manufacturers official store front or if it's from a "supplier" who just drop ships stuff from say taobao.

They leave the listings up so it keeps the ranking for like SEO shenanigans.

[thm_w]

Hi, I wish to share a non-purchase!!

I ordered somethings from AliExpress, after 10 days I got a message saying that an automatic refund will be issued in the next 3-20 days.

The vendor says that the item is out of stock, but still has it listed (999 available). There seems to be no place to leave feedback since the product wasn't shipped.

You can link the item if you want. Its possible they put the wrong price, or the cost to ship the item to Canada is too expensive, or it is actually out of stock temporarily.
If you wanted to cancel prior to the 10 days, you can use the "Cancel Order" button. But yeah you'd have to keep on top of your orders for that.

I've had the fake tracking number given a few times, thats more annoying than them saying its out of stock, because you have to wait to prove the number is fake.

[msuffidy]

I got 2 ESP 8266 dev boards for $5 Canadian each = $10 no tax from a 'Kijiji' deal. I walked from my door about 15 min each way to pick these up. Still sealed with both male and female header options included.

OK UPDATED: I soldered in the Arduino nano sort of headers and one I eventually got done but with some scratched solder mask. The second one I think I did industry spec. Maybe there was something different about the 2 solders (I have here) and I finally followed the video of adding the solder on the opposite side of the pin and iron. I just got the Arduino blinky working for one of them. That does not test the header just the built in led.

[gamalot]

I bought some banana plugs to make my own 4 wire shorts, copying Fluke's layout is easy, the only problem is that they use 2.5mm PCB, I plan to use two PCBs stacked.

The PCBs were delivered this afternoon and I assembled one 4-wire shorts easily. Everything works perfectly except for the ugly silkscreened tracking number added by JLCPCB.

[gamalot]

I bought some banana plugs to make my own 4 wire shorts, copying Fluke's layout is easy, the only problem is that they use 2.5mm PCB, I plan to use two PCBs stacked.

The PCBs were delivered this afternoon and I assembled one 4-wire shorts easily. Everything works perfectly except for the ugly silkscreened tracking number added by JLCPCB.

I uploaded the gerber files to github.

https://github.com/gamalot/4-Wire-Short

[rsjsouza]

I got some "plier tweezers" (alicate-pinça) from a store in Brasil. My older ones had a very active and lively life and need to retire.

[Nominal Animal]

The PCBs were delivered this afternoon and I assembled one 4-wire shorts easily. Everything works perfectly except for the ugly silkscreened tracking number added by JLCPCB.

When ordering from JLCPCB, you can select "Specify a location" for the order number, at the bottom of the quote form, and then in the very bottom, PCB remark box, tell them on which side you want the order number in, in simple English; say, "Order number on bottom, please".  I've done this to ensure the order number is not on the show side in my own designs.  It hasn't affected the price at all.

[gamalot]

The PCBs were delivered this afternoon and I assembled one 4-wire shorts easily. Everything works perfectly except for the ugly silkscreened tracking number added by JLCPCB.

When ordering from JLCPCB, you can select "Specify a location" for the order number, at the bottom of the quote form, and then in the very bottom, PCB remark box, tell them on which side you want the order number in, in simple English; say, "Order number on bottom, please".  I've done this to ensure the order number is not on the show side in my own designs.  It hasn't affected the price at all.

Yes I know I can specify a location but I thought they would skip the silkscreen printing if there wasn't any in my design. 

[RAPo]

A man cannot have enough probes. On the local auction site was an offering (Eu 30,--) for:
Tektronix probes:
6 x P6101, 5 complete, 1 one without datasheet
2 x P6105, only probes
2 x P6106, 1 x complete, 1 x only the probe
2 x P6063B, 1 x complete, 1 x only the probe
1 x P6065A, only probe

and
7 x Tektronix clips
1 x Greenpar probe, 10X

[Martin72]

A Tekprobe bought from a seller from the USA has arrived....
Nice looking, sold as untested, check it soon....
Nice: Schematic was also included.

Martin

[Martin72]

Nice looking, sold as untested, check it soon..

It works! 

[old-jo]

I just got a bench power supply: Sugon 3005D.
And yes, the screen protector stays

[McBryce]

I just got a bench power supply: Sugon 3005D.
And yes, the screen protector stays

I can almost (with maximum tolerance and open mindedness) understand people who leave a bubble free screen protector in place, but a screen protector in that state needs to go! How can you use something like that. Doesn't it annoy you every time you look at it? Why!!!??? 

It's as if you are prepared to use a non-perfect setup for it's entire lifetime (with you) so that someone else can later use it in perfection.

McBryce.

[old-jo]

It only annoys me if the lighting hits at the right angle ... just like when it appears in the photo